History ArtificialStupidity / RPG

** The AI spamming Recover could be this. Spamming Recover is unlikely to change the outcome of the battle and will instead just prolong it until the AI runs out of PP or you critical hit/vary your strategy. However by spamming Recover as a stall tactic the AI could be trying to force you into Struggle which could be seen as ArtificialBrilliance.** In Red, Blue and Yellow, this is because the Zeroth Law of the AI is to always use super-effective attacks, no matter what. This is most noticeable if you send out Venusaur (or really, any Grass/Poison Pokémon) against Erika or the trainers in her Gym. They will proceed to spam [=PoisonPowder=] (because Poison is super effective against Grass), but since Venusaur is part Poison itself, it cannot ever be poisoned, and you can proceed to [[CurbStompBattle curbstomp the entire Gym this way]].

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** The AI spamming Recover could be this. Spamming Recover is unlikely to change the outcome of the battle and will instead just prolong it until the AI runs out of PP or you critical hit/vary your strategy. However However, by spamming Recover as a stall tactic tactic, the AI could be trying to force you into Struggle Struggle, which could be seen as ArtificialBrilliance.** In Red, Blue Blue, and Yellow, this is because the Zeroth Law of the AI is to always use super-effective attacks, no matter what. This is most noticeable if you send out Venusaur (or really, any Grass/Poison Pokémon) against Erika or the trainers in her Gym. They will proceed to spam [=PoisonPowder=] (because Poison is super effective against Grass), but since Venusaur is part Poison itself, it cannot ever be poisoned, and you can proceed to [[CurbStompBattle curbstomp the entire Gym this way]].

*** This is also where TheComputerIsACheatingBastard actually plays against it - in Red, Blue and Yellow, the AI's moves had infinite PP - meaning that they could use them as many times as they wanted. If they had a usage limit, they would actually have to stop this stupid strategy at some point simply because they couldn't carry on.

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*** This is also where TheComputerIsACheatingBastard actually plays against it - — in Red, Blue Blue, and Yellow, the AI's moves had infinite PP - — meaning that they could use them as many times as they wanted. If they had a usage limit, they would actually have to stop this stupid strategy at some point simply because they couldn't carry on.

* Magikarp are useless even with Tackle, which they learn at level 15. However, Level 16 Magikarp in game continue to choose Splash. A minor bit of damage is surely better than a move that does absolutely ''nothing''? Even worse, in-game Gyarados can do it too.** However, with the addition of Z-Moves in gen 7, some trainers in the Battle Tree will use Z-Splash, which finally gets a function by raising the pokemon's attack stat by three ticks.

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* Magikarp are useless even with Tackle, which they learn at level 15. However, Level 16 Magikarp in game in-game continue to choose Splash. A minor bit of damage is surely better than a move that does absolutely ''nothing''? Even worse, in-game Gyarados can do it too.** However, with the addition of Z-Moves in gen 7, some trainers in the Battle Tree will use Z-Splash, which finally gets a function by raising the pokemon's Pokémon’s attack stat by three ticks.

* Similarly, every Plusle and Minun seems obsessed with using Helping Hand, even if they're not in a Double Battle (so the move has no effect whatsoever). Sometimes in double battles they will ''both'' use Helping Hand.* Some [=NPCs=] who think that using Explosion or Selfdestruct with their last Pokemon is a great idea. Granted, if you are also down to one, the AI will faint but win (before Gen V), but otherwise...

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* Similarly, every Plusle and Minun seems obsessed with using Helping Hand, even if they're not in a Double Battle (so the move has no effect whatsoever). Sometimes Sometimes, in double battles battles, they will ''both'' use Helping Hand.* Some [=NPCs=] who think that using Explosion or Selfdestruct with their last Pokemon Pokémon is a great idea. Granted, if you are also down to one, the AI will faint but win (before Gen V), but otherwise...

* In [=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=], the Champion of the Pokémon League (the second most powerful trainer in the game) will regularly get down to his last Pokemon and use [[SuicideAttack Perish Song, which KOs both Pokémon in the battle 3 turns after the attack is used unless they switch out]]. This would be run of the mill SpitefulAI, except for the fact it will still do this even if you have more than 3 Pokémon remaining, making it impossible for the AI player to win.* Trainers in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' are utterly bewildered by Zorua and Zoroark's ability, Illusion, which makes them appear as the last Pokémon in your party. If the Pokémon they appear to be is weak against Psychic attacks, the opponent will keep using them ''despite them being nullified by Zorua/Zoroark's Dark type''. Combine this with the fact that Illusion is only broken when the Pokémon affected by it is hit and you can potentially destroy an entire team without your Pokémon's cover getting blown at all.

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* In [=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=], the Champion of the Pokémon League (the second most powerful trainer in the game) will regularly get down to his last Pokemon Pokémon and use [[SuicideAttack Perish Song, which KOs both Pokémon in the battle 3 turns after the attack is used unless they switch out]]. This would be run of the mill SpitefulAI, except for the fact it will still do this even if you have more than 3 Pokémon remaining, making it impossible for the AI player to win.* Trainers in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' are utterly bewildered by Zorua and Zoroark's ability, Illusion, which makes them appear as the last Pokémon in your party. If the Pokémon they appear to be is weak against Psychic attacks, the opponent will keep using them ''despite them being nullified by Zorua/Zoroark's Dark type''. Combine this with the fact that Illusion is only broken when the Pokémon affected by it is hit — and being struck by an attack with no effect doesn’t count — and you can potentially destroy an entire team without your Pokémon's cover getting blown at all.

* In VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2's Mix Tournament, which involves your opponent and you trading one Pokemon to each other for the battle, the AI will sometimes make staggeringly idiotic decisions, such as the Gym Leaders that are competing taking the one Pokemon on your team weak against their main type in trade for a Pokemon that can one-shot it.

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* In VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2's Mix Tournament, which involves your opponent and you trading one Pokemon to each other for the battle, the AI will sometimes make staggeringly idiotic decisions, such as the Gym Leaders that are competing taking the one Pokemon Pokémon on your team weak against their main type in trade for a Pokemon Pokémon that can one-shot it.

** Also, the A.I. doesn't seem to grasp the concept of abilities that grant immunities to certain types other than Levitate. This can lead to, for example, using Thunder Wave (an Electric type move that causes paralysis) against a Pokemon with Lightning Rod (cancels out Electric type moves and makes them raise your Special Attack stat). Repeatedly. This even applies to '''Cynthia''', a powerful BonusBoss.** The above becomes specifically remarkable with regards to Primal Reversion Groudon. It has double weakness to water, but its ability, Desolate Land, summons Harsh Sunlight that evaporates all water based attacks. Naturally AI will ignore the Desolate Land part and will keep spamming water attack with zero effect.

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** Also, the A.I. doesn't seem to grasp the concept of abilities that grant immunities to certain types other than Levitate. This can lead to, for example, using Thunder Wave (an Electric type Electric-type move that causes paralysis) against a Pokemon Pokémon with Lightning Rod (cancels out Electric type Electric-type moves and makes them raise your Special Attack stat). Repeatedly. This even applies to '''Cynthia''', a powerful BonusBoss.** The above becomes specifically remarkable with regards to Primal Reversion Groudon. It has double weakness to water, but its ability, Desolate Land, summons Harsh Sunlight that evaporates all water based water-based attacks. Naturally AI will ignore the Desolate Land part and will keep spamming water attack attacks with zero effect.

* When teaming with Hau in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', he'll start off with an Electric/Psychic Alolan Raichu. Hau unfortunately seems to have a poor grasp on concept of type advantages, as despite the enemies in the area using plenty of Water and Poison types, he'll frequently pass up on hitting for super effective damage and instead choose to use less effective moves or target the wrong Pokemon. For instance, one of the teams you and he face will use a Pelipper. Despite the fact that Raichu's Electric STAB will almost certainly take Pelipper down in one hit, he will frequently hit it with its Psychic moves instead.** Another bit of Hau-related strangeness only occurs if you pick Rowlet, causing him to have a Primarina in a Double Battle at one stage. Primarina's signature move deals damage but also cures burns. The "cures burns" part will sometimes cause Hau's AI to use that move on ''your'' Pokemon. Even if your Pokemon is weak to that move's type. He's been known to OHKO his own allies.

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* When teaming with Hau in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', he'll start off with an Electric/Psychic Alolan Raichu. Hau unfortunately seems to have a poor grasp on the concept of type advantages, as despite the enemies in the area using plenty of Water and Poison types, he'll frequently pass up on hitting for super effective super-effective damage and instead choose to use less effective moves or target the wrong Pokemon.Pokémon. For instance, one of the teams you and he face will use a Pelipper. Despite the fact that Raichu's Electric STAB will almost certainly take Pelipper down in one hit, he will frequently hit it with its Psychic moves instead.** Another bit of Hau-related strangeness only occurs if you pick Rowlet, causing him to have a Primarina in a Double Battle at one stage. Primarina's signature move deals damage but also cures burns. The "cures burns" part will sometimes cause Hau's AI to use that move on ''your'' Pokemon. Pokémon. Even if your Pokemon Pokémon is weak to that move's type. He's been known to OHKO his own allies.

* In the ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' series, Gummis increase your Pokemon's IQ, which allows you to enable skills that reduce their ArtificialStupidity. For example, Trap Avoider prevents them from stepping onto already-revealed traps. Granted, you might ''need'' to step on a trap, but you can turn off the IQ skill in that case. In addition, you can also disallow the use of certain moves, such as Harden (which they'd otherwise do ''every single step'', and then continue trying to do it once they run out of PP).

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* In the ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' series, Gummis increase your Pokemon's Pokémon’s IQ, which allows you to enable skills that reduce their ArtificialStupidity. For example, Trap Avoider prevents them from stepping onto already-revealed traps. Granted, you might ''need'' to step on a trap, but you can turn off the IQ skill in that case. In addition, you can also disallow the use of certain moves, such as Harden (which they'd otherwise do ''every single step'', and then continue trying to do it once they run out of PP).

** Gates To Infinity thankfully alleviated most of the artificial stupidity from the get-go by making the majority of the "common sense" IQ skills a basic part of the AI, and also made them smart enough to avoid trying to apply status ailments to targets that are already afflicted by one. Unfortunately, there now isn't any way to get your Pokemon to consistently use super effective attacks or avoid ineffective ones.* Trainers with Protect or Detect will spam the move until the cows come home. These moves can be useful for avoiding a move that takes multiple turns to execute (Fly, Solarbeam, Hyper Beam, etc.) but endlessly using the move the majority of the time just delays the battle and wastes your PP. Especially noticeable in Gen V, where Tranquill and Unfezant trainers absolutely love to use it.

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** Gates ''Gates To Infinity Infinity'' thankfully alleviated most of the artificial stupidity from the get-go by making the majority of the "common sense" IQ skills a basic part of the AI, and also made them smart enough to avoid trying to apply status ailments to targets that are already afflicted by one. Unfortunately, there now isn't any way to get your Pokemon Pokémon to consistently use super effective super-effective attacks or avoid ineffective ones.* Trainers with Protect or Detect will spam the move until the cows come home. These moves can be useful for avoiding a move that takes multiple turns to execute (Fly, Solarbeam, Hyper Beam, etc.) but endlessly using the move the majority of the time just delays the battle and wastes your PP. PP (plus it has a chance of failure if used consecutively) Especially noticeable in Gen V, where Tranquill and Unfezant trainers absolutely love to use it.

** [[ActionBomb Explosion]] users are ''far'' worse, though. They'll always use it if they get a chance, even if you aren't immune to it. Of course, they'll prioritize it over nearly every other move. The only time you'll see them using something ''other than'' Explosion is if it's super-effective against the opponent. Maddeningly, the AI will choose Explosion even if they're the only friendly Pokémon left, an action '''''which will cause you to lose.''''' At least it's banned in Stadium and counts as a loss.

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** [[ActionBomb Explosion]] users are ''far'' worse, though. They'll always use it if they get a chance, even if you aren't immune to it. Of course, they'll prioritize it over nearly every other move. The only time you'll see them using something ''other than'' Explosion is if it's super-effective against the opponent. Maddeningly, the AI will choose Explosion even if they're the only friendly Pokémon left, an action '''''which will cause you to lose.''''' At least it's banned in Stadium ''Stadium'' and counts as a loss.

** Gonzap in ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'' loves to spam Earthquake with Pinsir, Crawdaunt and Hariyama, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he's knocking out whoever is his second Pokemon at the time in two turns or so each. And if you evolve Vibrava into Flygon and use it against him, he doesn't seem to realize that it has Levitate and is immune to Ground moves.

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** Gonzap in ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'' loves to spam Earthquake with Pinsir, Crawdaunt Crawdaunt, and Hariyama, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he's knocking out whoever is his second Pokemon Pokémon at the time in two turns or so each. And if you evolve Vibrava into Flygon and use it against him, he doesn't seem to realize that it has Levitate and is immune to Ground moves.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', trainers show a remarkable disregard of the target Pokemon's ability or forme if that makes it immune to certain moves. It does not matter if it's the only ability that Pokemon can have, or if the ability had been revealed before, they will keep using the move the target is already proven to be immune to. Even in the Battle Tree, you'll see instances of opposing Pokemon using Water-type moves on Pokemon with Water Absorb, or status moves on a Shield Forme Minior. They are even willing to use damaging Z-Moves on a Mimikyu whose Disguise was not broken, [[EpicFail dealing no damage at all as a result]].

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* In ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', trainers show a remarkable disregard of the target Pokemon's Pokémon’s ability or forme if that makes it immune to certain moves. It does not matter if it's the only ability that Pokemon Pokémon can have, or if the ability had been revealed before, they will keep using the move the target is already proven to be immune to. Even in the Battle Tree, you'll see instances of opposing Pokemon using Water-type moves on Pokemon Pokémon with Water Absorb, or status moves on a Shield Forme Minior. They are even willing to use damaging Z-Moves on a Mimikyu whose Disguise was not broken, [[EpicFail dealing no damage at all as a result]].

** Wandering [=NPCs=] have the extremely annoying habit of literally walking right into the middle of your battles, where you can turn them hostile and receive a bounty if you hit them by accident, even though it was ''their'' fault for getting your way to begin with.

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** Wandering [=NPCs=] have the extremely annoying habit of literally walking right into the middle of your battles, where you can turn them hostile and receive a bounty if you hit them by accident, even though it was ''their'' fault for getting in your way to begin with.

** If you jump or use levitation magic to reach an area [=NPCs=] cannot get to and attack them with ranged attacks, they won't run away or pick up the bow from that archer you just killed. No, the only rational option is to get as close as possible and run back and forth a bit while taking fireball after fireball in the face. (WordOfGod cites this specifically as one of the reasons why levitation magic was removed from the series after ''Morrowind''.)

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** If you jump or use levitation magic to reach an area [=NPCs=] cannot get to and attack them with ranged attacks, they won't run away or pick up the bow from that archer you just killed. No, the only rational option is to get as close as possible and run back and forth a bit while taking fireball after fireball in the face. (WordOfGod cites this specifically as one of the reasons why levitation magic was removed from the series after ''Morrowind''. Yes, it was easier for them to remove levitation magic than it was for them to program the A.I. to be able to deal with it.)

** AI failure can go from annoying to down right disturbing. Annoying when your AI allies keep dying by falling off things and disturbing when an entire army killed each other (While screaming Murder!, Murder!) because they'd hit each other in combat three times. It gets even worse when you bring them back to life and they do it again...** Allied [=NPCs=] can often be notoriously suicidal. Several quests require you to take [=NPCs=] through the hazard-filled planes of Oblivion, and it's rare you'll manage to escape back through the Gate with everyone you brought in. Allies (and enemies) will fling themselves off of cliffs into lava or off balconies seventy feet in the air in an attempt to get at an enemy they've spotted on the other side of the chasm. Even at minimal health, [=NPCs=] will happily fling themselves into combat, occasionally moving in front of the player character and stopping them from helping them out, only to be cut down within seconds. Escort quests (of which there are thankfully few) are immensely frustrating.

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** AI failure can go from annoying to down right downright disturbing. Annoying when your AI allies keep dying by falling off things and disturbing when an entire army killed each other (While screaming Murder!, Murder!) “Murder!, Murder!”) because they'd hit each other in combat three times. It gets even worse when you bring them back to life and they do it again...** Allied [=NPCs=] can often be notoriously suicidal. Several quests require you to take [=NPCs=] through the hazard-filled planes of Oblivion, and it's rare you'll manage to escape back through the Gate with everyone you brought in. Allies (and enemies) will fling themselves off of cliffs into lava or off balconies seventy feet in the air in an attempt to get at an enemy they've spotted on the other side of the chasm. Even at minimal health, [=NPCs=] will happily fling themselves into combat, occasionally moving in front of the player character and stopping them from helping them out, only to be cut down within seconds. [[EscortMission Escort quests quests]] (of which there are thankfully few) are immensely frustrating.

* In ''VideoGame/RavenswordShadowlands'', the AI of the enemies is very basic, meaning that it's possible to see them happily fall to their deaths if they happen to run into a BottomlessPit while chasing you.

* Also in ''Sun and Moon'', there are the wild Bewear in the postgame section of Poni Island that know Pain Split, which adds the user and target's remaining HP together and distributes an even 50% of the total to each of them. These wild Bewear will use it on Pokemon that have less HP than they do, meaning it accomplishes nothing but hurting itself and, if your Pokemon's HP is lower because it's taken damage, healing you.** It's not at all unheard of for the Exeggcute living earlier on Poni Island to use Sleep Powder to put your Pokemon to sleep, then on the very next turn use Worry Seed, a move that changes your Pokemon's ability to the sleep-preventing Insomnia, which will also wake your Pokemon up if they were already asleep.

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* Also in ''Sun and Moon'', there are the wild Bewear in the postgame section of Poni Island that know Pain Split, which adds the user and target's remaining HP together and distributes an even 50% of the total to each of them. These wild Bewear will use it on Pokemon that have less HP than they do, meaning it accomplishes nothing but hurting itself and, if your Pokemon's HP is lower because it's taken damage, healing you.** It's not at all unheard of for the Exeggcute living earlier on Poni Island to use Sleep Powder to put your Pokemon to sleep, then on the very next turn use Worry Seed, a move that changes your Pokemon's ability to the sleep-preventing Insomnia, which will also wake your Pokemon up if they were already asleep.

Reason: Most wild Pokemon use AI Roulette. There are exceptions - Ultra Necrozma, for instance - but random Bewears and Exeggutors don't count.

* ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'' suffers from a pretty faulty AI. One of the most {{egregious}} examples would be an infamous sidequest that involved leading a TooDumbToLive survivor of a droid attack, out of an abandoned military base. He can't make two steps unless he's facing you directly within a certain distance for at least a few seconds, and there's nothing between you and him.

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* ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'' suffers from a pretty faulty AI. One of the most {{egregious}} JustForFun/{{egregious}} examples would be an infamous sidequest that involved leading a TooDumbToLive survivor of a droid attack, out of an abandoned military base. He can't make two steps unless he's facing you directly within a certain distance for at least a few seconds, and there's nothing between you and him.

** Shulk, when controlled by the AI, is seen as even ''worse'' than Melia. He is very bad at using the Monado arts (Which are ''required'' to even ''scratch'' some enemies) and will waste the Monado on Monado Buster when it's better to use a shield or knockdown. He also does not handle positioning very well, even ''worse'' than many of the other games' characters. ** Riki is a ''very'' good character in part because he has the ability to put on just about every condition and ''keep'' them on, allowing them to stack up and deal a lot of damage to bulkier enemies. While Melia is able to put on Poison, Burn, and Freeze, the one thing Riki can put on that she can't is Bleed. While Riki's AI is pretty good with Poison and bleed, the AI does not seem to recognise that Burninate and Freezinate are just as useful against single targets as they are against a group. He will often need to be ''ordered'' to use them against single targets.

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** Shulk, when controlled by the AI, is seen as even ''worse'' than Melia. He is very bad at using the Monado arts (Which are ''required'' to even ''scratch'' some enemies) and will waste the Monado on Monado Buster (or Speed if the party is at a lower level than what they are attacking) when it's better to use a shield or knockdown. He also does not handle positioning very well, even ''worse'' than many of the other games' characters. ** Riki is a ''very'' good character in part because he has the ability to put on just about every condition and ''keep'' them on, allowing them to stack up and deal a lot of damage to bulkier enemies. While Melia is able to put on Poison, Burn, and Freeze, the one thing Riki can put on that she can't is Bleed. While Riki's AI is pretty good with Poison and bleed, the AI does not seem to recognise that Burninate and Freezinate are just as useful against single targets as they are against a group. He will often need to be ''ordered'' to use them against single targets. targets.** Speaking of Burninate, the AI will never use any full circle area of effect arts during a single target battle, which include Burninate, Dunban's Soaring Tempest, the seventh party member's Power and Ether Drains, and Reyn's War Swing and his aura Berserker. Although, this might've been an attempt to counter the issues with area of effects seen in ''X'' above.

* The home console games aren't immune either...there's an old lady in Agate Village in ''PokemonXD'' who will Baton Pass from Ninjask to Shedinja even if Ninjask is confused. Cue Shedinja fainting itself in confusion on its first turn.

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* The home console games aren't immune either...there's an old lady in Agate Village in ''PokemonXD'' ''VideoGame/PokemonXD'' who will Baton Pass from Ninjask to Shedinja even if Ninjask is confused. Cue Shedinja fainting itself in confusion on its first turn.

*** Never, ever give a ranged specific companion like Boone a high DPS melee weapon. Nothing ruins your nicely planned trap for the boss like Boone running past you, stabbing one of the mobs and dying in bullets while he is ''the best sniper in the world!''*** In the same vein as the above enemies with a both a ranged weapon and higher dps melee weapon will often pick rushing you with the melee weapon no mater how far off and unreachable you are. Even at relatively short distances it stands to reason they would at least try to shoot you while they close the distance before pulling out a knife. *** In the scripted Viper ambush in the canyon outside of Nipton one of the Vipers will usually spawn with a grenade rifle ... which they will promptly fire directly into the ground at their feet as soon as the fight starts because the AI doesn't know how to handle the combination of the arcing trajectory of the grenade rifle and elevated terrain. Since the player usually encounters this ambush rather early in the game the enemies are only leveled to level 5 or so and one grenade can kill a couple of them.*** In the Camp Guardian caves, if you tell Private Halford that the way out of the caves is clear, he goes LeeroyJenkins into the Lakelurks' lair instead of leaving through the nearest exit.*** Though there is code that is supposed to prevent this, AIs will still often throw a grenade in front of them and run directly into the blast and kill themselves or severely injure themselves. ** In ''VideoGame/FalloutTacticsBrotherhoodOfSteel'', Load Lifter robots do not seem to understand that they're too wide to fit through certain tight spaces. This results in them getting stuck, as they fruitlessly keep trying to move through the gap. The player can exploit this by positioning their squad on the other side of said gap and shooting the robot with impunity.

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*** ** Never, ever give a ranged specific companion like Boone a high DPS melee weapon. Nothing ruins your nicely planned trap for the boss like Boone running past you, stabbing one of the mobs and dying in bullets while he is ''the best sniper in the world!''*** ** In the same vein as the above enemies with a both a ranged weapon and higher dps melee weapon will often pick rushing you with the melee weapon no mater how far off and unreachable you are. Even at relatively short distances it stands to reason they would at least try to shoot you while they close the distance before pulling out a knife. *** ** In the scripted Viper ambush in the canyon outside of Nipton one of the Vipers will usually spawn with a grenade rifle ... which they will promptly fire directly into the ground at their feet as soon as the fight starts because the AI doesn't know how to handle the combination of the arcing trajectory of the grenade rifle and elevated terrain. Since the player usually encounters this ambush rather early in the game the enemies are only leveled to level 5 or so and one grenade can kill a couple of them.*** ** In the Camp Guardian caves, if you tell Private Halford that the way out of the caves is clear, he goes LeeroyJenkins into the Lakelurks' lair instead of leaving through the nearest exit.*** ** Though there is code that is supposed to prevent this, AIs will still often throw a grenade in front of them and run directly into the blast and kill themselves or severely injure themselves. ** * In ''VideoGame/FalloutTacticsBrotherhoodOfSteel'', Load Lifter robots do not seem to understand that they're too wide to fit through certain tight spaces. This results in them getting stuck, as they fruitlessly keep trying to move through the gap. The player can exploit this by positioning their squad on the other side of said gap and shooting the robot with impunity.

** the boss Mech Rider 3 is programmed to always attempt to cast Speed Up on himself if he doesn't have it active. Unfortunately, he's also programmed to cast Wall first, meaning he'll spend the entire fight bouncing his own Speed Up spells onto your party! Though given plot-related reasons, this has disturbing implications: it's possible he's doing this deliberately because he wants you to kill him. * ''KingdomHearts: 358/2 Days'' gives us the Invisible, an Ogre-class monster found in the last Agrabah mission. These Heartless have an attack where they disappear, leaving their sword to chase you around the map for a while before reappearing. It's possible to lure the sword past a wall, then roll behind the wall, stand there and let the sword keep trying to fly through the wall towards you until the Invisible reappears and teleports the weapon back to him. It's possible to do this with any of the three or four similar monsters, but it's easiest with the Invisible (one is a fake boss and the other is in Twilight Town, while Invisible's room has one spot perfectly suited to trap the sword).* The partner AI in the first and second ''KingdomHearts'' games is simply abysmal. On top of their tendency to waste all of their magic and skills instantly the moment a fight starts with anything (Donald is the worst in this department; he'll spend all of his MP in 5 seconds flat if you don't disable his attack spells), they also like to just stand there doing nothing for 2/3rds of any given fight. Their pattern is basically "attack, step back, wait 2 seconds, repeat", meaning they take a boatload of hits from enemies since they basically never guard even if you tell them to. Elemental attackers just fire off random spells, often resulting in them casting spells that do no damage on enemies strong against whatever they randomly chose.

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** the The boss Mech Rider 3 is programmed to always attempt to cast Speed Up on himself if he doesn't have it active. Unfortunately, he's also programmed to cast Wall first, meaning he'll spend the entire fight bouncing his own Speed Up spells onto your party! Though given plot-related reasons, this has disturbing implications: it's possible he's doing this deliberately because he wants you to kill him. * ''KingdomHearts: 358/2 Days'' ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'' gives us the Invisible, an Ogre-class monster found in the last Agrabah mission. These Heartless have an attack where they disappear, leaving their sword to chase you around the map for a while before reappearing. It's possible to lure the sword past a wall, then roll behind the wall, stand there and let the sword keep trying to fly through the wall towards you until the Invisible reappears and teleports the weapon back to him. It's possible to do this with any of the three or four similar monsters, but it's easiest with the Invisible (one is a fake boss and the other is in Twilight Town, while Invisible's room has one spot perfectly suited to trap the sword).* The partner AI in the first and second ''KingdomHearts'' ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' games is simply abysmal. On top of their tendency to waste all of their magic and skills instantly the moment a fight starts with anything (Donald is the worst in this department; he'll spend all of his MP in 5 seconds flat if you don't disable his attack spells), they also like to just stand there doing nothing for 2/3rds of any given fight. Their pattern is basically "attack, step back, wait 2 seconds, repeat", meaning they take a boatload of hits from enemies since they basically never guard even if you tell them to. Elemental attackers just fire off random spells, often resulting in them casting spells that do no damage on enemies strong against whatever they randomly chose.

[[folder:Final Fantasy]]* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2 A2]]'' feature some examples of this. Yes, in A2 the people you're escorting almost never just rush into combat (except when you're escorting overconfident pricks, which makes sense), which is nice... but enemies and friendly combatants alike make some of the stupidest decisions. Examples? Physically attacking a unit with Strike Back (which allows it to parry and counter any normal attack), or trying to cause a status effect to a unit which is openly immune to it, or go after the little supporting character while your Dragoons are ripping the enemy a new one... are some of the most usual ones.** Status immunities aren't the only things that the AI disregards... like inflicting silence on non-magic users. Why. Why do you do something like this?*** A2 also has some pretty desperate, yet dumb monsters. Chocobos, for example, will sometimes use Choco Cure or Choco Barrier on their allies if they are next to them, but are willing to use these skills even if you are in its range, thus you get the free buffs or heals. Some monsters like Antlions have attacks that are elemental based and can cause a debuff. They will use these abilities on their allies if they can absorb the element, but don't care if they are hit with the debuff.*** The chocobo thing is sometimes used in the original FFT to farm EXP- two allied characters drive a regular chocobo into a corner, and attack it enough to lower its HP without ever killing it. The chocobo keeps using Choco Cure to heal itself, thus healing the allied characters from any damage it may have caused them, allowing this system to potentially go on forever, upping the EXP of the characters with every attack.* The original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' has this in places as well...** The absolute worst example is Argath, a guest character you get early on and must keep alive. Because you get him quite early in the game, he, like the rest of the party, would benefit from some level grinding. Problem is, if you have a strategy, you may as well toss it out the window and go make sure he stays alive because he rushes into danger head first, often leading to a quick game over.** A close second is one battle with a particularly suicidal guest character. If she is KO'd, you lose. Your opponents are a high level swordsman (who ''always'' gets first turn, with which he ''always'' takes half the guest's HP), and two assassin type characters who can both kill any character instantly with 100% accuracy. So, naturally, the guest character will often be found rushing right into the middle of them instead of running the hell away. Unless your characters are particularly speedy, you can, and probably will, lose the battle [[LuckBasedMission before you even get a turn.]]** A less damaging but still valid example comes from a battle where the character you have to protect is statistically average, but has a single special ability that's [[GameBreaker so powerful there'd be no reason to ever use anything else]]. Naturally, he ''doesn't'' do the smart thing and use it every turn.** One solution for stupid allies: willingly immobilize them so that they don't rush blindly towards the enemy and do something stupid.** Another example in Final Fantasy Tactics is when one of your party member gets KO'd, the rest of your allies would rush to revive and cure said member, only for that newly-revived ally to get KO'd by enemy again. They'll basically waste more turns and items on reviving the ally instead of dealing with the enemy, especially when the enemy can be easily defeated.** Of course, there are some 'positive' examples. A good example is the Loss Strategy used by people attempting [[ChallengeRun solo challenges]]. You see, many of the later (and thus harder) bosses have the ability to confuse a single party member with 100% success rate, baring equipment granting immunity. Hitting that character will break the confusion, so the computer is programmed to not to attack the character unless they can kill them quickly enough. As such, if you only have one character in a battle, letting them get confused will prevent the boss from attacking them, whereas your character will act randomly, which will result in your character slowly killing the boss, as hitting the boss is the only productive thing they can do.** In general, the AI in Tactics isn't very good at handling status. Even if the enemy has some form of "you die now" status like instant death and can apply it 100% of the time, it will rather hit enemies into critical than to use those, sometimes even willing to waste time charging to do so(this is the basis of the "naked strategy" for Riovanes rooftops battle). Also, they like to use physicals to kill enemies even if said physicals can't hit at 100%, even if they have spells that would assuredly do the job (and even when they can get the spell off before anyone can interrupt them). Many solo single class strategies against Lucavis involve lowering the player's HP low enough to physical 1HKO range, get a mantle (or shield), and sooner or later they will get in a run where the boss tries to physical repeatedly and whiff repeatedly as the player whittles the boss's HP down. ** In Tactics Advance, AI-controlled archers will frequently waste their turns shooting at enemy units who have the Block Arrows ability. This isn't limited to enemy archers either. Ally archers, such as Ritz's Viera partner, Shara, will do the same thing.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'':** The blitzball AI can be ''hilariously'' dumb. For example, they will flat-out ignore the one with the ball until he or she passes within a certain radius, and then follow them to the ends of the earth, allowing you to pull the entire team halfway across the field to leave the goal open. Occasionally, you also get daft role allocations, like the Ronso Fangs putting a guy with a Catching score of 6 in goal at a time when an ''underleveled'' striker is still rocking a Shooting score of 15-20, or tactical decisions, like having a guy with an appalling shooting score try to go for the goal from midcourt.** It gets worse. If you want one of your players to learn an ability, you need to get an opposing player to use it. Try deliberately losing the ball to a forward you want to learn a shot technique from and leaving him a clear path to the goal. He'll have the perfect opportunity to score, and use it to pass.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesRingOfFates'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesEchoesOfTime Echoes Of Time]]''. No matter how many combos or special moves your AI followers unlock, they will never use any physical attack strategy more complicated than "stand near the enemy, stare at them for a few seconds, and swing their weapon precisely once". They'll stack the same element on your casting rings if their behavior allows them to, but don't expect any help casting the most powerful (and complicated) spells. Their only real use is as a temporary PC to cast Life on your ghost if you bite the big one. At least in ''Echoes'' they fixed the problem of your party members running or pushing each other off of ledges.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' has a boss whose most damaging move is Quake. It realizes that it misses floating characters, and will spam another move that removes Float from all of your characters whenever it detects a floating character around. Unfortunately, it ''doesn't'' realize that the move can, in fact, be reflected, thus Float + Reflect = the boss spamming its float removal move, doing nothing to hurt you until it dies.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight'' automatically selects your targets. This means your Black Mage will probably use Fire on the monster that absorbs Fire, and a White Mage will prioritize a character with Poison (which wears off after battles) over one who's Petrified (which doesn't).* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' hits your party members with this if they're sent into the Coliseum. In theory, each battle is a DuelBoss between a member of your party and a monster, with each of you betting an item. Trouble is, the AI assigned to your own party members is almost abysmally stupid, like it was practically on an AIRoulette. Characters would frequently cast spells like Antidote and Remedy despite not being under a bad status effect. Mog would try to Dance even though it would never work. Terra, if she was able, would morph into her Esper form, and then proceed to stand completely still until she died or the effect wore off. Sabin would use the Soul Spiral/Spiraler Blitz technique if he had it, which would instantly kill him and lose the match. And if you want all the best equipment, you can't ignore going to the Coliseum, since some of the things you can bet will net you things like the InfinityPlusOneSword Illumina and the best accessory, the Marvel Shoes. The result is a lot of SaveScumming and even more headaches.[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2 A2]]'' feature some examples of this. Yes, in A2 the people you're escorting almost never just rush into combat (except when you're escorting overconfident pricks, which makes sense), which is nice... but enemies and friendly combatants alike make some of the stupidest decisions. Examples? Physically attacking a unit with Strike Back (which allows it to parry and counter any normal attack), or trying to cause a status effect to a unit which is openly immune to it, or go after the little supporting character while your Dragoons are ripping the enemy a new one... are some of the most usual ones.** Status immunities aren't the only things that the AI disregards... like inflicting silence on non-magic users. Why. Why do you do something like this?*** A2 also has some pretty desperate, yet dumb monsters. Chocobos, for example, will sometimes use Choco Cure or Choco Barrier on their allies if they are next to them, but are willing to use these skills even if you are in its range, thus you get the free buffs or heals. Some monsters like Antlions have attacks that are elemental based and can cause a debuff. They will use these abilities on their allies if they can absorb the element, but don't care if they are hit with the debuff.*** The chocobo thing is sometimes used in the original FFT to farm EXP- two allied characters drive a regular chocobo into a corner, and attack it enough to lower its HP without ever killing it. The chocobo keeps using Choco Cure to heal itself, thus healing the allied characters from any damage it may have caused them, allowing this system to potentially go on forever, upping the EXP of the characters with every attack.* The original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' has this in places as well...** The absolute worst example is Argath, a guest character you get early on and must keep alive. Because you get him quite early in the game, he, like the rest of the party, would benefit from some level grinding. Problem is, if you have a strategy, you may as well toss it out the window and go make sure he stays alive because he rushes into danger head first, often leading to a quick game over.** A close second is one battle with a particularly suicidal guest character. If she is KO'd, you lose. Your opponents are a high level swordsman (who ''always'' gets first turn, with which he ''always'' takes half the guest's HP), and two assassin type characters who can both kill any character instantly with 100% accuracy. So, naturally, the guest character will often be found rushing right into the middle of them instead of running the hell away. Unless your characters are particularly speedy, you can, and probably will, lose the battle [[LuckBasedMission before you even get a turn.]]** A less damaging but still valid example comes from a battle where the character you have to protect is statistically average, but has a single special ability that's [[GameBreaker so powerful there'd be no reason to ever use anything else]]. Naturally, he ''doesn't'' do the smart thing and use it every turn.** One solution for stupid allies: willingly immobilize them so that they don't rush blindly towards the enemy and do something stupid.** Another example in Final Fantasy Tactics is when one of your party member gets KO'd, the rest of your allies would rush to revive and cure said member, only for that newly-revived ally to get KO'd by enemy again. They'll basically waste more turns and items on reviving the ally instead of dealing with the enemy, especially when the enemy can be easily defeated.** Of course, there are some 'positive' examples. A good example is the Loss Strategy used by people attempting [[ChallengeRun solo challenges]]. You see, many of the later (and thus harder) bosses have the ability to confuse a single party member with 100% success rate, baring equipment granting immunity. Hitting that character will break the confusion, so the computer is programmed to not to attack the character unless they can kill them quickly enough. As such, if you only have one character in a battle, letting them get confused will prevent the boss from attacking them, whereas your character will act randomly, which will result in your character slowly killing the boss, as hitting the boss is the only productive thing they can do.** In general, the AI in Tactics isn't very good at handling status. Even if the enemy has some form of "you die now" status like instant death and can apply it 100% of the time, it will rather hit enemies into critical than to use those, sometimes even willing to waste time charging to do so(this is the basis of the "naked strategy" for Riovanes rooftops battle). Also, they like to use physicals to kill enemies even if said physicals can't hit at 100%, even if they have spells that would assuredly do the job (and even when they can get the spell off before anyone can interrupt them). Many solo single class strategies against Lucavis involve lowering the player's HP low enough to physical 1HKO range, get a mantle (or shield), and sooner or later they will get in a run where the boss tries to physical repeatedly and whiff repeatedly as the player whittles the boss's HP down. ** In Tactics Advance, AI-controlled archers will frequently waste their turns shooting at enemy units who have the Block Arrows ability. This isn't limited to enemy archers either. Ally archers, such as Ritz's Viera partner, Shara, will do the same thing.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': the blitzball AI can be ''hilariously'' dumb. For example, they will flat-out ignore the one with the ball until he or she passes within a certain radius, and then follow them to the ends of the earth, allowing you to pull the entire team halfway across the field to leave the goal open. Occasionally, you also get daft role allocations, like the Ronso Fangs putting a guy with a Catching score of 6 in goal at a time when an ''underleveled'' striker is still rocking a Shooting score of 15-20, or tactical decisions, like having a guy with an appalling shooting score try to go for the goal from midcourt.** It gets worse. If you want one of your players to learn an ability, you need to get an opposing player to use it. Try deliberately losing the ball to a forward you want to learn a shot technique from and leaving him a clear path to the goal. He'll have the perfect opportunity to score, and use it to pass.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesRingOfFates'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesEchoesOfTime Echoes Of Time]]''. No matter how many combos or special moves your AI followers unlock, they will never use any physical attack strategy more complicated than "stand near the enemy, stare at them for a few seconds, and swing their weapon precisely once". They'll stack the same element on your casting rings if their behavior allows them to, but don't expect any help casting the most powerful (and complicated) spells. Their only real use is as a temporary PC to cast Life on your ghost if you bite the big one. At least in ''Echoes'' they fixed the problem of your party members running or pushing each other off of ledges.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' has a boss whose most damaging move is Quake. It realizes that it misses floating characters, and will spam another move that removes Float from all of your characters whenever it detects a floating character around. Unfortunately, it ''doesn't'' realize that the move can, in fact, be reflected, thus Float + Reflect = the boss spamming its float removal move, doing nothing to hurt you until it dies.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight'' automatically selects your targets. This means your Black Mage will probably use Fire on the monster that absorbs Fire, and a White Mage will prioritize a character with Poison (which wears off after battles) over one who's Petrified (which doesn't).

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': the blitzball AI can be ''hilariously'' dumb. For example, they will flat-out ignore the one with the ball until he or she passes within a certain radius, and then follow them to the ends of the earth, allowing you to pull the entire team halfway across the field to leave the goal open. Occasionally, you also get daft role allocations, like the Ronso Fangs putting a guy with a Catching score of 6 in goal at a time when an ''underleveled'' striker is still rocking a Shooting score of 15-20, or tactical decisions, like having a guy with an appalling shooting score try to go for the goal from midcourt.*** It gets worse. If you want one of your players to learn an ability, you need to get an opposing player to use it. Try deliberately losing the ball to a forward you want to learn a shot technique from and leaving him a clear path to the goal. He'll have the perfect opportunity to score, and use it to pass.** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesRingOfFates'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesEchoesOfTime Echoes Of Time]]''. No matter how many combos or special moves your AI followers unlock, they will never use any physical attack strategy more complicated than "stand near the enemy, stare at them for a few seconds, and swing their weapon precisely once". They'll stack the same element on your casting rings if their behavior allows them to, but don't expect any help casting the most powerful (and complicated) spells. Their only real use is as a temporary PC to cast Life on your ghost if you bite the big one. At least in ''Echoes'' they fixed the problem of your party members running or pushing each other off of ledges.** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' has a boss whose most damaging move is Quake. It realizes that it misses floating characters, and will spam another move that removes Float from all of your characters whenever it detects a floating character around. Unfortunately, it ''doesn't'' realize that the move can, in fact, be reflected, thus Float + Reflect = the boss spamming its float removal move, doing nothing to hurt you until it dies.** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight'' automatically selects your targets. This means your Black Mage will probably use Fire on the monster that absorbs Fire, and a White Mage will prioritize a character with Poison (which wears off after battles) over one who's Petrified (which doesn't).

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** * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': the blitzball AI can be ''hilariously'' dumb. For example, they will flat-out ignore the one with the ball until he or she passes within a certain radius, and then follow them to the ends of the earth, allowing you to pull the entire team halfway across the field to leave the goal open. Occasionally, you also get daft role allocations, like the Ronso Fangs putting a guy with a Catching score of 6 in goal at a time when an ''underleveled'' striker is still rocking a Shooting score of 15-20, or tactical decisions, like having a guy with an appalling shooting score try to go for the goal from midcourt.*** ** It gets worse. If you want one of your players to learn an ability, you need to get an opposing player to use it. Try deliberately losing the ball to a forward you want to learn a shot technique from and leaving him a clear path to the goal. He'll have the perfect opportunity to score, and use it to pass.** * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesRingOfFates'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesEchoesOfTime Echoes Of Time]]''. No matter how many combos or special moves your AI followers unlock, they will never use any physical attack strategy more complicated than "stand near the enemy, stare at them for a few seconds, and swing their weapon precisely once". They'll stack the same element on your casting rings if their behavior allows them to, but don't expect any help casting the most powerful (and complicated) spells. Their only real use is as a temporary PC to cast Life on your ghost if you bite the big one. At least in ''Echoes'' they fixed the problem of your party members running or pushing each other off of ledges.** * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' has a boss whose most damaging move is Quake. It realizes that it misses floating characters, and will spam another move that removes Float from all of your characters whenever it detects a floating character around. Unfortunately, it ''doesn't'' realize that the move can, in fact, be reflected, thus Float + Reflect = the boss spamming its float removal move, doing nothing to hurt you until it dies.** * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight'' automatically selects your targets. This means your Black Mage will probably use Fire on the monster that absorbs Fire, and a White Mage will prioritize a character with Poison (which wears off after battles) over one who's Petrified (which doesn't).

* In SengokuRance, the AI will occasionally put warriors in the back where they can't attack and [[SquishyWizard Diviners]] in the front. Considering how NintendoHard the game is, you need to take advantage of any and all blunders the AI makes to win.

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* In SengokuRance, ''VideoGame/SengokuRance'', the AI will occasionally put warriors in the back where they can't attack and [[SquishyWizard Diviners]] in the front. Considering how NintendoHard the game is, you need to take advantage of any and all blunders the AI makes to win.

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